SHAMBHALA SUN MAY 2006 15
Golly gosh gee, I’ll just wait till Prince
Charming comes along and the words “I
do” pop out of my mouth.
Lynn Lloyd
Santa Cruz, California
CLARIFYING NAROPA’S “METHOD”
John Baker does a fine job articulating
the links and commonalities between
Buddhism, modern psychoanalysis, and
the work of Dr. Louis Ormont in his in-
formative article about group therapy
(“All Together in the Present,” January
2006). There is, however, one point that
needs clarification. Mr. Baker mentions
that the “Ormont method” is still taught
in Naropa’s Contemplative Psychology
program. This is not the case.
Group process, in several forms, has
been a part of Naropa’s Contemplative
Psychotherapy program since it began
in the mid-seventies. Formal instruc-
tion in the theory and practice of group
psychotherapy, however, began in 1991
and I have taught that course since its
inception. Although my early training
was with Dr. Ormont, and I remain in-
debted to him, his “method” is by no
means what I teach at Naropa. Besides
influences from many Western psy-
chodynamic group therapists, the hall-
mark of the Contemplative Psychology
program at Naropa is the continuing
effort to integrate contemplative, Bud-
dhist viewpoints of one’s relationship
with mind and the interpersonal envi-
ronment with the foundations of West-
ern psychology and psychotherapeutic
practice. So the “method” we teach is
uniquely the Naropa Contemplative
Psychotherapy program method, which
remains in ongoing development.
For those wanting to learn more about
our approach, we are hosting a confer-
ence in honor of our program’s thirtieth
anniversary this May. You can also visit
our website for more information.
Robert Unger, Ph.D.
Boulder, Colorado
BEFORE DEPRESSION, REPRESSION
In “Determined to Heal” (January 2006),
Gehlek Rinpoche asserts that if we look
carefully we can find the “true reason” for
painful states like depression. “At first,”
he says, “it may not be so clear to you,
but after a little while the truth will be-
gin to emerge. Depression is interlinked
strongly with fear and the thoughts and
feelings that fear produces.”
My experience as a Zen student,
dharma teacher, and psychotherapist is
that self-critical and depressive states are
often the result of repression. Repres-
sion can take many forms, and resolving
these painful states means dealing with
the repressive mechanisms themselves,
as well as the painful material that has
I'm meditating on my inability to meditate due to the fact that when I meditate,
I can’t stop thinking about how I can’t meditate because I’m thinking
about my inability to meditate. Is that correct?
been repressed. As these begin to rise up
to consciousness, we often do experience
fear or anxiety; but simply lowering that
anxiety doesn’t deal with the underlying
problem.
Although they can be tremendously
helpful, meditation practices—and even
awakening experiences—do not usually
by themselves untie these unconscious
knots. I agree with Pema Chödrön and
Dzigar Kongtrul when they cite the need
for intense self-examination in practice.
Such honesty includes a willingness to
work toward experiencing the entire
range of so-called negative emotions—
and to make conscious that which drives
them.
Openness to whatever arises often
leads us into threatening and unfamiliar
places, but when worked with skillfully,
these may hold the key to the most pro-
found healing.
Lawson Sachter
Alexander, North Carolina ♦
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